Sportswagers
Marshall vs Northern Illinois
Marshall -9½ -106 over Northern Illinois
Boca Raton Bowl - FAU Stadium - Boca Raton, FL
6:00 PM EST. Many folks are going to see an 11-2 Huskies squad taking back 9½ or 10 points and think it’s a gift but it’s not. Of the all the bowl teams this year, NIU probably played the easiest schedule of them all. When they defeated Western Michigan in the second last game of the year 31-21, the stats in that game suggested WMU should have won that game by four TD’s and they would have had they not turned it oversix times. Western Michigan did whatever they wanted against NIU and that’s the same WMU team that was manhandled by Air Force in the Idaho Potato Bowl three days ago. Northern Illinois is this year’s biggest frauds that really doesn't do anything well except get very fortunate when the other team commits mistakes.
There is no question we have a lot of skewed numbers for both sides in this game, as Marshall’s schedule was a rather easy one too. The difference however is balance. NIU is basically a one-dimensional offense that runs left, runs right and runs up the middle. Only when absolutely necessary will the Huskies go to the air. Meanwhile, the Thundering Herd can hurt you both through the air and on the ground. Herd QB Rakeem Cato will play his final game and he’s thrown a TD in a FBS record 45 straight games. This year, Cato has thrown 37 TD’s and passed for over 3600 yards. We also love the fact that Marshall Coach, Doc Holliday could have chosen a different bowl game but chose this one because according to him, “The Huskies were the highest-ranked opponent available and we wanted the biggest challenge we could find”. Holliday is 2-0 in bowl games while NIU Coach, Rod Carey is 0-2. The Huskies hang their hats on the opposition not playing a clean game but Doc Holliday, who is sought after by many strong programs always has his team well-prepped. We’re usually not in favor of spotting this many points because that back-door cover is often a killer. Generally speaking, however, in bowl games, you do not want to pick big underdogs that cannot play from behind and there are plenty of reasons not to make an exception for NIU.
Our Pick
Marshall -9½ -106 (Risking 2.12 units - To Win: 2.00)